Career - Blog Posts

How to Work for NASA: Tips from a NASA Intern

Working for NASA is a life long dream for those who grew up building LEGO space stations, watching Space Shuttle launches and admiring Apollo Era heroes. Transforming this childhood dream into reality is more complicated than handing your resume to the right person but more straightforward than receiving a classified invite from an intelligence agent. I will share the many avenues of becoming a part of interstellar exploration discovered during my time interning at NASA. Ramen to Rockets NASA has two primary avenues for current college students to get involved - OSSI Internships and thePathways Internship program (Co-Op). OSSI (One Stop Shopping Initiative) is the main source for internships, fellowships and scholarship opportunities at various NASA centers. An internship is a semester long program where you work alongside professionals in your discipline, get paid in a stipend and do meaningful work that advances NASA’s mission. Some interns have been invited to join NASA full-time but is not common. A Pathways Internship (Co-Op) is similar to an OSSI Internship except a Co-Op is sworn in as a US Government Civil Servant, paid bi-weekly, receive benefits of a Civil Servant, and flip-flops between semesters studying at college and working at NASA. Some Co-Ops extend their flip-flopping into grad school. NASA’s primary pipelines for full-time Civil Servants is the Pathways Intern (Co-Op) program. I shared in great detail what the Co-Op program is and how to apply in this three part blog series. The phrase “college student” may spur images of a microwavable ramen zapping Millennial but NASA’s college programs are great for every kind of college student! OSSI and Co-Op students are parents, veterans, Millennials, experienced in industry and more. Cold Call Nothing can stop you from simply applying to a full-time position at a NASA center. I call it a “Cold Call” because this isn’t a pipeline program driven process. Go on USAJobs and search “NASA” and pages of positions will appear. Applying in this manner may feel like tossing your resume into a black hole. With stellar related experience in aerospace industry, research, military or start up work this method of applying may just work! I share how to use the USAJobs resume builder in this post. Alternatively, an extreme way to join NASA is to become an astronaut. I shared tips on the astronaut application processhere. Note that becoming an astronaut is the least probable way to work at NASA. Space Contract The majority of individuals working onsite at NASA centers are actually contractors. This means they are employed by private companies that NASA collaborates with on projects. Some of many contractors are Lockheed, Boeing, Jacobs, and System Technologies Group (STG). Projects that contractors work on include Orion, Space Launch System, propulsion testing, and International Space Station maintenance. A private company may have a contract to build a part or system and do so offsite at their respective facility. Contractors that produce a part offsite often come onsite to perform integration tests and are an important part of the NASA team and mission. Keep in mind, if you apply to a private (possibly aerospace related) company you may not have much control over if you are a part of a NASA related project.  More recently NASA has been reaching out to small businesses for parts, services and solutions via Small Business Innovation Research. Small businesses can propose projects that can advance NASA’s mission. From Civil Servant on site to a small business working in a small town you can work with NASA and advance space exploration.

Mars Dust into Thrust: NASA Co-Op #2 Week One

You would think pursuing a double major in electrical engineering and computer science would provide enough breadth to remain confident at a Co-Op... wrong. As I start my second Co-Op tour at NASA Johnson's Propulsion & Energy Conversion team I am finding that the more you learn the less you know. This summer I will be LabVIEW programming for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) a system that turns Mars dust into fuel. ISRU is a rover payload that takes in mars atmosphere and soil and turns it into liquid methane and oxygen (fuel options). Other capabilities is getting O2 to breathe and excavating drinkable water. One of my projects is to control with a National Instruments compact cRIO an oxygen liquefier and a new water concentration sensor. The sensor I am testing uses spectroscopy to eliminate sensor erosion from corrosive Mars materials. These tasks are very chemical engineering heavy which require understanding a system and how to control it safely. I am excited to tackle this learning curve, understand more about Mars mission energy systems, and become more comfortable with chemical engineering concepts. WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch what NASA is up to: https://youtu.be/p_snvjghMJg Learn how to program with LabVIEW: https://youtu.be/IOkoyuikj5Q?list=PLdNp0fxltzmPvvK_yjX-XyYgfVW8WK4tu Read about our journey to Mars: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html ISRU in more depth: https://youtu.be/M3HbD1S_H5U

Make the Most of a Summer Internship Establishing good habits, setting goals and doing research - I share internship tips in U of Minnesota Duluth's career blog: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/make-the-most-out-of-your-summer-career-experience/

It is possible to have a meaningful internship before college and completing core classes! I share early career tips in the U of MN Duluth Career Center blog: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/its-never-too-early-to-intern/ Side note: NASA interns toured the Historic Mission Control where Moon missions were guided from. I wasn't actually the Flight Director of Apollo Missions. However I did sit console in current Mission Control logging tasks during a space walk.

Land a Career with the US Government

I shared all my advice on how to land a career US Government! Semesters that I am not working at NASA Johnson Space Center I study at the University of Minnesota Duluth and work in their Career and Internship Services. I am training into a Peer Educator position soon to help students edit resumes, write blog posts and give general career advice. In their Peer Educator Blog "Peer Into Your Career" I shared my US Government career tips. If someone wants to work for NASA or any other agency this three part blog series is where I would direct them!

Part 1: Using the US government's USAJobs.gov as a job search engine.

Part 2: Perfecting your resume on USAJob.gov's resume builder.

Part 3: A Pathways Internship, an awesome US Government career experience for college students.

Throughout my time as a Peer Educator I will write monthly posts for the "Peer Into Your Career" blog.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

"Peer Into Your Career" blog by U of MN Duluth Peer Educators has many great posts help  you in every aspect of your career! From when you first start searching to later in your career.

Visit your university/ college's Career Center! These wise folks are more than happy to help you out and are full of quality wisdom.

For non USAJobs.gov resume builder tips check out U of MN Duluth's Career Handbook for resume tips and more!

Side note: I did not successfully land the T-38 Jet simulator so ask me about career landing advice not plane landing advice. I did a few loops though. Yes that is Astronaut Gregory C Johnson in the co-pilot seat!

Our cheering faces are in an Official NASA Tumblr post. Go Cotern class of Fall 2015! You all can join us at NASA by applying for an internship, Pathways Internship (Co-Op), Recent grad program, Full Time position or become an astronaut!

So you want to work at NASA?

An out of this world career or internship might not be as far out of reach as you think. Check out all the ways you can get involved!

If you’re a student…

Our internships are the perfect place to start! We offer paid internships for spring, summer, and fall semesters to U.S. citizens currently attending an accredited university full time. Learn more at: https://intern.nasa.gov

Seriously considering a job in the Federal civil service? Check out the Pathways Internship Program which allows you to do multiple work tours while you finish school: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/iep.htm

If you’re a recent graduate…

If you’re a U.S. citizen who has graduated from an accredited college or university within the past 2 years (or 6 if you have served in the military), then the our Recent Graduates program is just for you. Accepted applicants are placed in a 1 year career development program with the possibility of an additional year, or even granted term or permanent jobs within the agency. Learn more at: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/rgp.htm.

If you’re a professional…

You can search for our job openings any time at USAJobs.com. Create an account, then use the USAJobs resume builder. Want to make sure your resume maximizes your opportunity for a job at NASA? Check out our Applicant Guide: https://applyonline.nasa.gov/applicant_guide.html.

You can then search for our job openings here: https://nasai.usajobs.gov/.

If you want to be an astronaut…

Astronaut candidate applications are accepted every few years- including right now! Get yours in before the current application closes on February 18, 2016.

Do you have a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field and 3 years of related professional experience? You might be eligible. Find out more and apply online at: https://nasai.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/423817000.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

NASA Co-Op Week 17: First Co-Op Tour Wrap Up

During my final week at NASA this fall I leave PLUTO with a helpful tool. I am putting together a database of hardware on board the International Space Station that is searchable by part number or name. Sometimes the astronauts ask about something that is hard to explain and visualize so this will ease communication. This may not be the most technical task but I wanted to leave them with a really helpful tool. This week I am also awaiting the opportunity to watch the astronauts use my training.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my semester with PLUTO. My top three experiences would have to be developing the astronaut training, visiting Kennedy Space Center and sitting console in Mission Control. PLUTO's work environment is impressive with friendly people, personal growth opportunities and approachable leaders. The PLUTO team was so gracious to nominate and present to me a Co-Op award for my work this semester. It is such an honor to work with these passionate and talented Mission Control specialists.  This summer I return to the Co-Op program with the Propulsion and Power Division turning Moon and Mars regolith into fuel. I am so thankful for my Co-Op opportunity and I hope you all can get involved with NASA too! Please check out ways you can be a part of the NASA mission below.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

Apply for a NASA Internship NOW (high school to grad school):

https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/

Apply for a NASA Co-Op (Pathways Internship):

http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm

Other current NASA opportunities for students:

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.html

Apply to be a NASA astronaut due Feb 18th:

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/423817000

Follow Scott Kelly in his yearlong mission: http://time.com/space-nasa-scott-kelly-mission/

Astronaut Application Tips From A NASA Intern 

Astronauts are unavoidable in your daily work at Johnson Space Center. They are on the phone talking about flight plans as you try to pass on a bicycle, in meetings about future missions as you doodle on a note pad, and in front of you in line at the cafeteria as you wait to get chicken tacos. Us interns have had many opportunities to attend lectures put on by astronauts and attempt to squeeze every tidbit out about becoming an astronaut too. 

Apply Apply Apply

You can't become an ASCAN on a whim, it takes persistence. Yes that's right, pronounced "Ass" "Can", astronaut candidate. Many astronauts applied many times before being selected. Clayton Anderson, small town Nebraskan boy turned NASA engineer, applied 15 times over 15 years before becoming an ASCAN. A Mission Control flight controller in my team illustrated how every application you ever submit is stored in NASA's records. He mentioned Duane Ross, former Head of Astronaut selection, kept applications on a rolodex-esk machine. The first letter of the applicants sir name could be entered and the rolodex machine flipped to their stack of applications like a deck of cards being neatly flipped through. With modern applications being submitted via USAjobs.gov I fear the aesthetic of application sorting machines will not be preserved. Although you should apply many times doesn't mean you should apply before you meet the minimum requirements. Chris Cassidy, Chief of the Astronaut Office and former Navy Seal, remarked it would be wise to wait till you have completed a Bachelors Degree and three years of work experience. Please don't bog down the system with your work as head cheese sprinkler at Pizza Hut. 

Bare Minimums

I mentioned Chris Cassidy's minimum requirements but did not expand on what Bachelor Degrees are accepted. Typically STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) degrees are accepted. Particular programs can cause a grey area. If you are not confident that your degree is accepted email or Tweet at NASA with questions. Once the December 14th application opens a point of contact should be listed to ask questions. Current Head of Astronaut Selection Anne Roemer notes that an important aspect of your degree/ experience is that you can be effectively compared to other candidates. If you can not be sorted into a pile to be compared with other applicants you essentially get tossed out. In addition to experience in industry experience in the armed forces is highly admirable. Approximately 60% of astronauts have military background. Majority of civilians have a doctorate degree. Although your application will be packed with honors and laureates a bland resume format is not effective. It is desirable to express work and project experience in a narrative voice, tell your story. 

Not A Checklist 

When asked "Why were you picked to be an astronaut?" five out of five astronauts I have asked said, "I don't know". Many variables come into play when selecting a candidate that the "kicker" characteristic that gets you in isn't obvious. A sure fire way NOT to get picked is to make your journey to becoming an astronaut a check list. I had the opportunity to spend time with astronaut Mike Fossum at a cook out this summer. He said, "The road to becoming an astronaut is littered with successful careers". Meaning perfectly respectable careers were lost as folks tried in vain to be astronauts. Simply do what you enjoy most. That may naturally lead to a career as an astronaut. 

Applications open December 14th: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/be-an-astronaut-nasa-seeks-explorers-for-future-space-missions

 More application requirement details: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/606877main_FS-2011-11-057-JSC-astro_trng.pdf

NASA National Community College Aerospace Scholars Fellow interns did an amazing job mentoring NASA's National Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS). They held a panel sharing their NASA stories as NCAS alumni sharing wisdom about treating rejection like an opportunity, achieving excellence over perfection, fundraising no matter what, and following your passion. The NCAS students built autonomous Lego robots that retrieved pieces of rovers from a mock Mars surface. You too can be a part of NCAS Due Early December 2015: https://nas.okstate.edu/ncas/

Tech Opportunities: Grace Hopper Day 2

An overwhelming aspect of the Grace Hopper Conference is the career fair and hosted lunches. During which you get to exposed to many career, learning and conference opportunities. I couldn't possibly take advantage of all these opportunities so I will share them with you.

Hour of Code: Everyone

Learn a bit of programming for an hour or longer if you like! Simply projects to get you jump started with programming.

Bank of America Internships: Current Students

Hiring and looking for interns in cyber security, user interface design, software, IT and more.

NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Community: Women in College

Attend conferences, access to exclusive scholarships, exposure to internship opportunities, join a support group of over 2500 like minded women who share a similar passion for computing. A support network where you can connect with others 24/7. There is always someone posting or responding on the Facebook page!

Google & Microsoft Internships: Everyone

At the Grace Hopper Conference Google & Microsoft heavily stressed that they are hiring and recruiting more interns and full time hires. They both offer parental leave meaning both parents get paid leave for many weeks for a child!

Best Buy: Everyone

During the career fair Best Buy was hosting a coding challenge which caught my attention. They displayed medium level code in various languages and you had to determine what it outputs. After completign the challenge they described various engineering, analyst and IT.

Code Camp | Square: College & High School Women

Five day to week long tech immersive camp where you code, practice leadership and complete group engineering projects.  

NASA Co-Op and Internship: Current Students

Of course I am going to list NASA opportunities I Co-Op at NASA! Everybody in every discipline can contribute to NASA's mission and humanities goals to advance space exploration. There are current education, fashion design, art, engineering, computer science, and biology majors and more!

These are the first nine opportunities that popped into my head and I will share more as the conference progresses.

Lights flashed on the stage.These are real life rock stars. 12,000 women computer scientists and engineers gathered for the Grace Hopper Women in Celebration. Women or not already during day one I learned valuable career advice anyone can benefit from. What's Your Niche? Take a moment to think about what other people think about you. No, not what they think about your clothing or how you shoved that piece of pizza in your face. What they think about you as a whole. Like it or not, everyone has a niche or brand that people identify you with. Are you a trail blazer? Approachable? Efficient? Ally? Approachable? Ask someone how they see you, however, you may not like the results... but there is a solution. There was a women in the workplace who was described to have career ADD, meaning she would purposely take on projects in disarray, fix them and move on to the next crumbling project. Transforming her weakness into a strength she used her talent to reorganize lost causes becoming a strategist. Co-workers could go to her for help with theor projects adding value to the team. Crucial Conversations In Your Career Unavoidably there will be times in your career when you have to practice conflict resolution, stick up for yourself and simply communicate with others what you are working on. Various social norms can debilitate folks from communicating effectively. Here are charactierstics that ensure effective communication: Be Direct, Be Specific, Be Proactive & Be Confident Advice From a CEO As an NCWIT (National Center for Women & Information Technology) collegiate member peers and I had the opportunity to have lunch with the CEO and engineers from Qualcomm. The CEO happened to sit at my lunch table and we got to ask him career advice. One of my favorite questions was, "What are characteristics that got you to the position of CEO?" His answer... 1) Communicate: speak confidently, convince others of your idea, be a good public speaker. 2) Trust: know your employee's are competent, they are the technical experts. 3) Motivate: Be a cat herder, convey the importance of the task effectively.

Looking Forward to Grace Hopper 2015

Unsure of whether to call it the Grace Hopper Conference or Celebration I’m going to postulate that it is both. Grace Hopper Celebration of  Women in Computing (GHC) is a collection of conferences where computer scientists can learn about the latest technology, participate in tech workshops, network and build soft skills. The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and the Association for Computing Machinery initiated GHC named after the computer scientist Grace Hopper. Hopper coined the term debugging, after picking bugs out of her computer and invented the first compiler, allowing programming languages to be more human-like.

Aspiring or seasoned computer scientist GHC sounds like the place to be, described by my peers in NCWIT (National Center for Women and Information Technology). In high school I became one of NCWIT’s MN State Affiliate Aspiration in Computing Award winners and since then have heard of networking stories, tales of learning experience and good times from GHC goers.

As a current Co-Op at NASA’s Johnson Space Center I have been sent on a mission to learn as much as I can and share with my department how these acquired skills will help them. As an NCWITer I will be able to connect with other like-minded women and attend their networking events. I have been browsing through the conference schedule and crafted a comprehensive itinerary filled with keynote presentations, professional development, and hands on tech projects.

Sessions on my itinerary I am most excited for include “Communicating for Impact and Influence”, “Design and Development Considerations in Serious Games”, “Bank of America Technical Women Luncheon”, “Speed Mentoring Breakfast with Microsoft”, and “Data Science: NASA”.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

I will be live tweeting and live blogging the event

Check out this year’s sessions and think about joining in next year

Watch keynotes from past events

NASA Co-Op Week 7: Astronaut, Rovers & Robots

One wheel off the edge of a cliff ten of us were jam packed in a rover sweating like dogs.

Robonaut, Valkyrie, Modular Robotic Vehicle and Small Pressurized Rover are the electrical explorers we visited during a Johnson Space Center robotics tour. Waiting in NASA's Rock Yard was a speedy electric vehicle and a crater climbing rover. MRV is an electric drive vehicle that is has high maneuverability that would score big in drifting competitions. We all got to ride in the Small Pressurized Rover which wasn't really small at all. This giant monster truck looking rover took us in and out of  lunar like creators and up a steep Mars like hill. The operator drove us to the edge of the hill and asked, "All right, are you ready to go down?" Grasping to our seats we were all white knuckled. Backing up the rover the operator laughed, "Going down that hill would have wrecked the vehicle". For those few seconds the inside of the rover became even more sauna like. In The Martian movie you will see a modified version of the Small Pressurized Rover that Mark Watney drives around.

Robotnaut is the humanoid robot you see on the news all the time that works in the International Space Station (ISS). Flexing muscles and articulating fingers Robotnaut showed off for us. Robotnaut is very strong able to lift over 20lb of weight in manners that would make arm day miserable. However, Robotnaut is also very delicate able to sense the wight of a nickle on its fingertips.

Valkyrie is a full bodied humanoid robot designed to perform human tasks in conditions unsafe for humans. The idea for Valkyrie came after the Fukushima Accident where more damage could have been avoided if valves were closed near the site, a task a robot could do. Valkyrie is also being designed for low gravity exploration like Mars or Lunar exploration.

Astronaut Michael Fossum talked us student this week too. He flew two Shuttle Missions and a six month long mission to the International Space Station. Before he was in space Fossum engineered ways to repair the shuttle during space walks to prevent any pieces from breaking off. During the space walk  Fossum navigated over to the tiles on the space station and sealed spaces and breaks with cocking substance. He mentioned when you look "down" in various directions during a spacewalk you can either see the surface of Earth or a black nothingness.  Fossum also was the first to capture a time-lapse of Northern Light and the first astronaut to operate Robotnaut on the ISS.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Read about the Small Pressurized Rover and its future missions

Learn about Valkyrie's future endeavors

Watch Astronaut Mike Fossum operate Robotnaut

Robotnaut's younger sibling Robotnaut2 operating switches on the ISS

Human like hand motions by Robonaut2

Start your career with NASA and tune into a Virtual Career Fair and hear about internship, fellowships and scholarships October 8th 12pm-3:30pmCT

NASA Co-Op Week 6: Sayonara Little Spacecraft

Mission control got so quiet you could hear the flight controllers sweat. Wait, wasn't the HTV supposed to be released?

Weeks ago HTV5, a Japanese cargo spacecraft, arrived at the International Space Station delivering fresh foods, experiments and other supplies. HTV5 was lovingly named Kounotori by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) meaning white stork. The arrival of these cargo ships are essential to ensure scientific exploration can continue on the Space Station. After the cargo ship is unloaded and reloaded with garbage. If you ever wondered how astronauts take out the trash...

Astronauts carefully fill up the empty cargo ship with garbage calling down to ground to double triple check if they can throw things out. At times it takes three astronauts strapping the trash bags to the inner walls of the cargo ship to finish the job. Why bother doing that, it is just trash?  By carefully calculating its trajectory, center of gravity and controlling its course the cargo ship plummets through Earth's atmosphere and burns up before hitting the surface. If the center of gravity was not constant the cargo ship we would lose control of the cargo ships trajectory. The cargo ship is released from the Space Station. Up until now the Canadarm2 has a hold of the cargo ship but then releases its grasp. Now you see the importance of HTV5's release, we don't want anyone getting hit by astronaut trash.

Flash forward to HTV5's release day I am sitting console with ISE (Integration Systems Engineer) console, the console that is in charge of visiting vehicles. Timing of the HTV5 release is key - it needs to occur when we have full communications, quickly as steps to release need to execute one after another, and ideally when the Space Station is illuminated by the sun for our monitoring. The countdown for the release began. The flight director focused our thoughts, "stop unnecessary chatter" the release sequence was about to begin. Flight controllers called "ADCO Go", "PLUTO Go", "ISE Go" and so on. Release protocol began but the Canadarm2 did not budge and the window for release was quickly closing.

"ROBO, you have 20 minutes to tell me what happened." instructed the flight director. In mission control there is no time to freeze up when an issue occurs but time to get to work and solve the problem. ROBO is in charge of the Canadarm2 operations. After determining a new release window, re-configuring Canadarm2 the HTV5 was successfully released! JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui worked controls on-board the international space station. Later on Twitter Kimiya remarked, "Sayonara Kounotori- kun. You are so beautiful I really miss you...".

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch these silly astronauts float, eat and exercise on the Space Station.

Achievements this week at NASA.

Video from the HTV5 release.

Astronaut Kimiya speaks with his hometown about life on the Space Station.

I was in mission control when the discovery of water on Mars was announced! See what the NASA scientists have to say about Martian waters.

Start your career with NASA and tune into a Virtual Career Fair and hear about internship, fellowships and scholarships October 8th 12pm-3:30pmCT

Photos by NASA

NASA Co-Op Week 5: NASA After Hours 

Surprisingly NASA, like college, has a plethora of "extra-curriculars" including intramural sports and committees. Interns at Johnson Space Center (JSC) are uniquely involved in extracurriculars. JSC interns hold weekly meetings. Twice a month PIPE, a professional social group meets and SCuM, a social social group. PIPE hosts committees like professional development, social media (managing NASA Twitter & Facebook accounts), PAXC (Pathways Agencies Cross Center Connection), and Tours & Lectures. SCum hosts committees like Sports, Intern Video, Fancy Dinner, and Skydiving (an intern tradition). 

I am currently the lead of Tours/Lectures. A group of us arrange tours at neat locations around JSC like flying a T38 jet trainer, the largest pool in the world where astronauts and Robonaut lab. Lectures are also arranged by the group including Anne Roemer, head of the Astronaut Selection Committee, Ginger Kerrick, Assistant Director for the International Space Station, and Everett Gibson, Moon Rock Expert. 

PAXC is a group that unites all the NASA Centers. Every other week we video conference with all the other centers! Glenn in Ohio, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Langley in Virginia. We get to hear about what the other centers are working on, lectures from their center leaders and dream about touring each other's centers. 

Hacking into a lawnmower robot is another activity I take part in. We are converting an autonomous navigating lawn mowing robot into a tele-operated human controlled robot. This requires taping into the robots controls and adding wireless communication between the robot and controller. Using an Adruino controller we can send signals to the robot so we have been learning how to use it. 

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED 

Learn about some the lecturers we will be hearing from: Anne Reomer, Ginger Kerrick & Everett Gibson 

Watch what NASA is doing to enhance the mission to Mars 

Start your career with NASA and tune into a Virtual Career Fair and hear about internship, fellowships and scholarships October 8th 12pm-3:30pmCT

Launching Your Aerospace Career

As unbelievable as it seems my passion for aerospace and space research was not found until my senior year in high school. There are many programs I wish I had known about throughout my schooling and programs I still want to participate in the future. I hope this post open doors about ways you can launch your aerospace career and spark your imagination.

Elementary School

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Jr. LEGO League  (Jr.FLL) Students ages 6 - 9 create an invention out of LEGO parts that solves real world problems.

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Students ages 9 - 14 design, build, and program LEGO Robots that compete in a game. A really cool FLL team

VEX IQ Challenge Elementary - middle school students build controllable robots to complete tasks and compete.

Middle School

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Students ages 9 - 14 design, build, and program LEGO Robots that compete in a game. A really cool FLL team

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Students in grades 7 - 12 design, fabricate, wire, and program robots to compete in alliances. A really cool FTC team

VEX IQ Challenge Elementary - middle school students build controllable robots to complete tasks and compete.

VEX Robotics Competition With skills in computer aided design, programming, animation, and fabrication middle school - college students build robots and compete on alliances of 2 V 2 to achieve reach the top score.

High School

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Students in grades 7 - 12 design, fabricate, wire, and program robots to compete in alliances. A really cool FTC team

FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) In only six weeks high school students from around the world design and build 120 lb robots to play games such as soccer, basketball, and Ultimate Frisbee. I captained an FRC team in high school and can vouch that all the FIRST robotics leagues (JrFLL - FRC) are fantastic! My old high school's FRC team

Texas High School Aerospace Scholars High school students from Texas get to collaborate with NASA engineers onsite to complete a week long project and work among fellow scholars.

VEX Robotics Competition With skills in computer aided design, programming, animation, and fabrication middle school - college students build robots and compete on alliances of 2 V 2 to achieve reach the top score.

Glenn High School Internship Project (GHIP) Eight week paid internship for high schoolers to work at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. This opportunity is for incoming juniors and seniors.

K - 12

Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA) Summer filled with innovation offering activities for all Contact

Destination Imagination Improv to engineering, art to teamwork students compete from around the world in many disciplines.

College

NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) Community college students get onsite and online NASA experience and education.

VEX Robotics Competition With skills in computer aided design, programming, animation, and fabrication middle school - college students build robots and compete on alliances of 2 V 2 to achieve reach the top score.

NASA College Internships Paid internships at NASA available for year round and every season at the various NASA centers.

NASA Pathways Internship (College Co-Op) Now the OSSI internships are different than what NASA calls Pathways Internships (more commonly known as Co-Ops) where you are a civil servant with higher pay and benefits. You also go on “tours” (at least 3) where you switch between a semester working and NASA and a semester studying three times.

All Ages and Disciplines

Alphabetical order list of NASA programs for all ages and disciplines.

*My earlier posts explain FIRST Robotics better* **Next post, as a woman in STEM, I will focus on resources for women in STEM!**

(TopL: NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars Credit: NASA, TopR: Jr. LEGO League creation Credit:FIRST FLL, Middle: Me lining up my high school robotics team’s basketball shooting robot Credit: Daredevils FRC Robotics Team 2512, BottomL: LEGO Mindstorm robot Credit: LEGO, BottomR: In a parade with NASA Glenn and their Orion float.)

Today was a day that was a freaking suffering.

Yet, i am pleased to say that I entered the career of psychology.

I ENTEREDDDDDD

Now I can sleep with peace and dream with Morpheus js.

Now that I think of it, there is gonna be way difficult now.

Dont matter. I will be able.

Now, lets dream and dream bigger with burning Netflix down.

That's not so christian of me but well.

Good Night/day/afternoon fellas!

Cooler information about EUROPA

Argh how am I even supposed to get a career? I do technician work on cars and have an electro-mechanical engineering associates but neither of those really feel like something I wanna do long term. Like how is one supposed to just. decide that. Especially at 18. And in the middle of a pandemic, which is when I was expected to. It doesn't help that there are so many things that sound like they would be fun and/or interesting but then most of them don't seem to pay very well (like landscaping or baking) or require a lot of math that I am subpar at (like all of the science that interests me) or I am just not very good at and feel like it would be very difficult to get into now (music, theater) (I know these still don't necessarily pay well either).

And like. maybe I could manage to get good enough at one of these to make a career out of it except I have the attention span of an actual gnat and I am really good at getting bored of things at top speed so what if I commit to something and then decide that it still isn't something I can to for 30+ years? I have found that the grass really is greener on the other side. But I have decided that I really don't want to work on cars for 33 more years so now I gotta find something else that is tolerable.

anyway end rant. thanks for reading, if anyone sees this. I just don't know what to do and need to put some thoughts out into the Void.